Lemon Chicken Pasta features marinated chicken breasts, broccoli, spinach and pasta, tossed in a bright, tangy lemon vinaigrette!
In case you haven’t noticed, I’m a wee bit obsessed with lemons these days.
They’ve been so plump and pretty lately, and whenever I roll one of those bright yellow fruits between my hands and a cutting board to get the juices flowing, the tart and pure aroma that releases from its peel never fails to make my mouth water.
That unmistakable scent always reminds me of Ben’s and my trip to the tiny, seaside town of Praiano, Italy, where lemon trees were so abundant the fruit seemed to fall out of the sky. I love that one sniff can take me back there!
Plus, let’s be real, lemons juice adds a ton of flavor to the dishes you add it to without adding a bunch of extra calories. Loves it!
Tonight, after recently gussying up Lemon Poppy Seed Pancakes and Wild Salmon with Lemon CousCous with the jazzy juice, I mainlined it into a bright and sassy dinner of Lemon Chicken Pasta.
Oh baby this was good!
I started by plunging some Just Bare chicken breasts into a lemon-infused marinade.
This super simple marinade contained the juice of a couple lemons, a splash of extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of dried thyme, and garlic salt and pepper.
I squished the marinade up in the bag, then added the chicken and rolled it all around to make sure everything was coated and covered.
While the chicken marinated, I took Eloise to get new tires (her transformation is officially complete!) – about 30-45 minutes. Marinating for any longer would cause it to start cooking in the lemon juice.
I popped the chicken breasts on a flat top skillet to cook (still out of propane for the grill!) but since I forgot to employ my secret technique for perfect chicken, the breasts were cooking totally un-even. #Ownsecrettechinquefail
I took them off the heat, sliced them up, then added them back onto the skillet with a splash of leftover marinade. All good!
Meanwhile I roasted a tray of broccoli tossed with EVOO, salt & pepper for 10 minutes, then added a couple big handfuls of baby spinach on top and continued cooking for a few minutes.
Roasted broccoli = totally worth having the oven set to 425 degrees on a 100 degree day. I promise!
While everything was cooking away, I got to work on a Lemon Vinaigrette to bring all the ingredients together with 1/2 pound of pasta.
This was similar to yesterday’s Lime Vinaigrette for the Quinoa Salad, and came together in a snap!
It was faaaabulously fruity from the EVOO and wonderfully tart from the lemon!
Once the chicken & vegetables were done, I added them to the cooked pasta, poured on some of the Lemon Vinaigrette, and tossed everything together.
Yum, yum, YUMMY!
Black Bean, Quinoa & Citrus SaladLemon Chicken Pasta
Description
Lemon Chicken Pasta features marinated chicken breasts, broccoli, spinach and pasta, tossed in a bright, tangy lemon vinaigrette!
Ingredients
- 8oz dried pasta
- For the chicken:
- 2 chicken breasts
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 2 lemons, juiced
- pinch of dried thyme, salt & pepper
- For the vegetables:
- 1 head broccoli crowns
- Extra virgin olive oil
- salt & pepper
- 2 handfuls baby spinach
- For the Lemon Vinaigrette:
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- pinch of dried thyme, salt & pepper
Directions
- For the chicken: Pound chicken breasts to an even thickness and marinate in EVOO, lemon juice and seasonings for no longer than one hour. Cook on the grill or in a skillet until chicken is no longer pink inside.
- Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain & set aside.
- For the vegetables: Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place broccoli crowns onto a foil-lined & non-stick sprayed baking sheet, drizzle on EVOO, salt & pepper, toss, then roast for 10 minutes. Add spinach on top of broccoli and cook for 4 more minutes.
- For the Lemon Vinaigrette: whisk ingredients together. Taste & adjust seasonings as necessary.
- Mix pasta, chicken & vegetables together. Pour on 1/4 cup of the Lemon Vinaigrette and toss again to coat. Enjoy!
This recipe is courtesy of Iowa Girl Eats, http://iowagirleats.com.
When life hands you lemons, make this dish. The raw lemon juice in the vinaigrette almost tastes sweet when compared to the more sour taste of the cooked lemon on the chicken. The combo of the two is wild!
The roasted veggies totally take it over the top. Deeeeefinitely worth the extra heat in the kitchen. DO YA’ FEEL ME?!
For dessert, I am digging into a bowl full of cherries.
Can I say once again how much I freaking love summer produce?!?!?!?!?!
In other news, it is like 4,000 degrees outside but I think Ben and I are going to go brave the heat for a walk! Last night on the news a soldier who had served in Iraq was being interviewed about what he thought about the sudden and oppressive heat wave that’s recently graced central Iowa. He said,
“Well, it’s really not that bad when you consider the fact that it regularly reached 152 degrees while I was serving in Iraq.”
Ben and I looked at each other and officially zipped our whiny lips for the summer…!
Have a great night!
~~~~~
What is something you like in one form, but hate in another?
I heart fresh cherries, but I hate maraschino cherries. I also love chocolate bars, but hate chocolate icing!
I looove lemons!!! I just like squeezing them in my water, cold or hot, it’s good either way!
Apples. I love them as applesauce, cooked, or baked, but I dislike them raw. I don’t really even like apple slices, even if I have something to dip them in!
Oooooh bananas! No to bananas but YES (a big F-A-T YES!!) to banana flavored things – popsicles, Laffy Taffys, AND Runts. I thnk I might be the only one who likes banana stuff!
Sadly, my dislike for bananas went from bad to worse when I was in Mexico in high school and got carsick after I had eaten a banana for breakfast because we woke up late. (You can guess what happened….)
Oh man, I need to stop complaining about the heat too! That dish looks delicious. As soon as I feel like making my kitchen hotter, I will try it out!
I am a lemon juice LOVAH. I put it on everything from fish to green juice!
I dislike tomatoes but I love pasta sauce, ketchup, etc. Since the humidity is so low I’ve been enjoying this hot Iowa weather. Much better than the winter and the oppressive humidity we’ll have in July and August.
My fiance served in Iraq for 22 months… he says the same thing to me… Needless to say… we don’t cry too much when it gets hot like this. ;)
The dish looks fab! I live lemons in everything in the summer… just a slice in a tall glass of ice water is SO refreshing!!
Your dinner looks so refreshing- I heart lemon chicken!
i love sauteed onions but i hate raw onions, they will literally make me puke!
love tomatoes…hate tomato soup. love peas…hate sugar peas. love italian sausage pizza & meatballs & guinea grinders…hate italian sausage sandwiches.
cherries for me too! i love regular cherries, but a big NO to maraschino cherries and all cherry flavored things (yogurt, candy, etc) it makes me think of children’s tylenol.
I agree – like overly sweet cough syrup!
Wow, I’m the same way! I love fresh cherries, but dislike maraschinos or anything cherry flavored. I love actual chocolate, but I don’t like chocolate cake/icing (with a few exceptions) and chocolate ice cream….I always thought it was weird, haha.
Also fresh spinach but not cooked spinach, bbq potato chips but not bbq sauce, and jello shots (heh) but not jello.
I love maraschino cherries, but not regular cherries! I love all the sweet lemon recipes, not the savory ones. I don’t mind lime savory things though-like lime chicken. I know its weird. I love the taste of strawberries and actual fresh strawberries, but not ones in pies, or that are mushy. My family never bought much fresh produce, so I don’t really like fresh pears or peaches, just the canned kind. I know its sad really…… :D
Oh my – roasted broccoli – it is my new fave!! I recently tried Roasted garlic broccoli from Twopeasandtheirpod blog – it the best broccoli I have ever had!
Needless to say, I will be trying this recipe for sure!!!
And I LOVE fresh pineapple, but canned is absolutely YUCK!!
Thats easy – mint! I love mint-chocolate desserts and mojitos, but when it comes to using mint in any cooking I am not a fan!
Omg this looks wonderful! Thanks for the recipe-Can’t wait for our local cherrys to be ready (another month or so up here in the Toronto area)
I love your pictures!
Summer produce has won my heart as well–I just can’t seem to get enough of it lately.
I love chocolate but hate chocolate ice cream.
YUM I want to make this! bookmarking it right now :)
“What is something you like in one form, but hate in another?” Blueberries! In fact, I just posted about this on my blog. I made blueberry muffin oatmeal with blueberry preserves, brown sugar, cinnamon and blueberries. I wanted to see if my aversion to whole blueberries went away, but nope: the preserves in the oatmeal tasted amazing, but I left the whole blueberries at the bottom of my bowl!
I HATE celery with a passion, but I would never eat a Turkey Dressing or Stuffing without it in it.
152 degrees??? I am off to look that up! Whoa!!!!
I have a lot of love/hates. No to coffee or coffee drinks, but love coffee ice cream or candy. No, no, no to raw tomatoes, yet love chili, spaghetti, catsup, and even salsa. I can’t even cut up the tomatoes to make things from raw. /gag No to cooked spinach, unless gently wilted from fresh, but never frozen or mushy, but love it raw. Can eat meat or poultry, but have a really hard time handling raw. I could go on, but I think I’ve revealed enough of my food issues. I’m odd. I’m good with it. :D
Cherries are SO SO SO good lately!
I really like nut butters, but I’m not a huge fan of nuts in general. They always make me too thirsty because they are so salty.
My family always gets mad at me for not letting them put nuts in brownies/cake/bread/etc. :)
Awesome recipe; can’t wait to try it. Any kind of lemon chicken rocks as does almostvany roasted veggie.
Love grape jelly, hate grapes. Hate phony watermelon-flavored anything, LOVE watermelon. Love food flavors mixed, hate mixed fruits. Go figure.
great dinner. I am just in love with the photo of the little lemon on your patio in Italy.
Hey another question – what kind of camera do you use?! If you have a post about it, can you shoot me in that direction?
I have a Nikon D3000!
wow i am the same way! i FINALLY tried real cherries 2 years ago and was so sad at what i had been missing out. those cherries they put in shirley temples…gross!! and i love chocolate bars (as in a chocolate bunny at Easter, yummm!) but hate chocolate frosting on a cake! sometimes i feel like i am the same girl just livin in Fl, i tell ya! ha :-)
What a delicious looking dinner! It looks light and refreshing! I definitely want to make this! I love lemon chicken. :) I love roasting vegetables too. It’s definitely worth the heat from the oven.
We are in the middle of a heatwave here in PA. Tomorrow is supposed to the worst of all. Keep cool! :)
Yum – the dish looks very refreshing and perfect for a hot summer day. I bet it would be good as a cold salad too!
Raw mushrooms are not my favorite, but cooked mushrooms – holla! Love them.
What a fun way to use lemon, this recipe sounds so summery and delicious! One thing that I like in one form and hate in another — strawberry + banana. I love them each seperately but for some reason, strw-ban flavored anything makes me want to gag. So weird?
You naming your bike Eloise <— hysterical LOL. :P
This recipe has been put on my “Meal Plan.” It looks so incredibly refreshing!
I love that quote from the soldier. Puts things in perspective.
I don’t like pickles, but like cucumbers.
Love this recipe!
I grew up thinking that I didn’t like pineapple because I only had it out of a can. Imagine my surprise when I had fresh pineapple! It is easily one of my favorite fruits. Still hate the canned stuff though.
So what amount of time of marinating is appropriate? Maybe an hour? I might try this recipe.
I like raw carrots but do not like cooked carrots. Mushy veggies gross me out.
Anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour is good!
I love, love, love tomatoes in all forms but cannot STAND drinking V8 or any other tomato juice. Blech! BTW, this recipe and the quinoa salad from the other day are both on my MUST MAKE list now.
Oh this looks and sound so great I can’t even tell you! I’m a wee bit obsessed with lemons (and limes) myself. I go through about 1/2 lime a day in my selter water haha. Oh and roasting broccoli, esp. with lemon ZEST, is one of my favorite ways to eat it! Try adding a few whole cloves of garlic when you roast it and then top the whole thing with lemon zest. Perfection.
I love lemons! Lemon marinades, dressings, desserts, in water! NUMS!
Hmm, I would say I really dislike carrots unless they are in soup. Then I’m all about ’em! I also really love peanut flavor in Asian dishes but nowhere else (I know! I’m the only person ever!).
yum!
I love sweet potatoes in some forms but not others. I like them as fries, or even baked, but cannot stand them with brown sugar and marshmallows…blech!
love milk chocolate / chocolate cake / chocolate frosting
hate chocolate ice cream / hershey’s syrup / wendy’s chocolate frosty
dark chocolate – i’m on the fence ;-)
I think that guy’s exaggerating a bit! :) I have no doubt that Iraq is quite hot, but the highest temperature ever recorded anywhere on Earth was only in the 130s.
[…] Comments « When Life Hands You Lemons… […]
This looks so good. I’m a lemon freak too! They are so plumpy right now as well! I can’t believe it’s that hot already in Iowa! Love the bike btw!
I’ve been on a big lemon kick lately too–recently made a lemony kale pasta AND ricotta lemon pancakes…we’re on the same wave-length :)
I love Lemons! so summery! I love apples (an apple a day!) but HATE apple juice! I know why too… my mom thinks apple juice smells like baby vomit (soooo sorry for all apple juice lovers out there) so she never bought it and was very vocal about her opinion : ) Just can’t drink it
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